The Maple Leafs recognize that they are in no place to grade the quality of their victories these days.

One lonely regulation goal from a fourth-liner, who saw two shifts the remainder of the game? Fine.

A shootout win helped by a lengthy video review on what was eventually ruled (correctly) a James van Riemsdyk goal? They’ll take it.

And yet another game this season in which the goaltender was their steadiest player on the ice? Still adds up to two points.

A blown lead late in the third period against a pesky Phoenix Coyotes team could have spelled disaster on Thursday night at the Air Canada Centre, especially given the fragile mental state of the Leafs in recent days.

Instead, they dug in and scraped out a 2-1 shootout win to get two of the more important points among the 39 they have collected through 37 games this season.

“It hasn’t been a good feeling around here the last couple of days,” said Joffrey Lupul, whose head-fake deke on Coyotes goalie Mike Smith was the shootout winner. “It’s funny how one ugly, grind-it-out win like that and you can come to the rink the next day feeling a lot better about yourselves.”

The Leafs will take that feeling into a practice Friday and hopefully carry it over to their Winter Classic preview here the following night against the Detroit Red Wings.

They can thank any number of forces for creating that vibe on Thursday, but how about starting where it all stops — in net with James Reimer.

Getting a second consecutive start for the first time since mid-November, essentially because Jonathan Bernier is suffering from what the team is describing as an “ailment,” Reimer stopped 34 of the 35 shots he faced.

The only one to beat him was off the long stick of Martin Hanzal, whose towering reach from behind the net tied things with 4:52 remaining in regulation. Up until then, the only goal in the game came from the Leafs’ Troy Bodie, who scored his first in blue and white — and first in any NHL colour since the 2010-11 season — at 15:52 of the first.

Also stepping up was the much-maligned David Clarkson, who may have had his best game as a Leaf. Assigned to shut down Hanzal and the rest of the Coyotes’ top line, Clarkson was engaged the entire night and a physical force throughout.

But back to Reimer, the usually mild-mannered goaltender had been outspoken about the team’s effort in a loss to Florida on Tuesday, saying that it was “B.S.” if the team was going to fall back on weariness and injuries as an excuse.

“You’re judged on how you respond,” Reimer said. “We did a great job tonight. Everybody bought in.”

While it wasn’t always pretty, the Leafs had more fight in them than most nights in the December swoon, no easy task against a Coyotes team that makes the opponent work for everything it gets. At one point early in the second period, the Leafs had a 14-7 edge in shots, only to see overtime end with the margin 35-27 in the ’Yotes favour.

Reimer didn’t bend, other than getting beat on the clever Hanzal play and the Leafs in front of him responded.

“People say pucks bounce off him and things like that, but he’s a very, very competitive guy,” Lupul said. “We draw off of that.”

You could argue that the Leafs were fortunate to get two points against the determined desert dogs. But while they got sloppier as the game went on, they persisted long enough to get the win, potential impetus to pull themselves out of a funk that had seen them lose five of their six previous games.

The shootout got off to a crazy start when van Riemsdyk’s opening attempt was under review. The Leafs forward tried to slip the puck under Smith’s pad and as the goaltender slid back, the puck looked to cross the line.

The favourable Leafs ruling opened just enough for them to get back in the win column and look for better days ahead.

“This is a very tough stretch for us,” Lupul said. “I’m not using that as an excuse, it’s just the reality.

“Boston will go through a similar stretch and so will Montreal at some point. We just have to get as much rest as we can, get some bodies back in the lineup and hopefully get some momentum that we can build on.”